'Winning back Bengal will be tough'

NEW DELHI: Armed with the postmortem analysis of its dismal performance by state committees, CPM���s central committee will meet for two days from June 20 in the Capital.

A preliminary meeting will take place on May 24 in West Bengal and on the same day, Kerala state committee will start its deliberations. CPM general secretary Prakash Karat will attend the meeting in Kerala.

As the defeat sinks in, CPM leadership is worried about the shift of Muslim vote in West Bengal. The party thinks unlike Kerala, where electoral fortune is cyclical, winning back West Bengal will be a tall order.

Now, party leaders think that apart from Singur and Nandigram, even Rizwanur murder case contributed to the Muslim anger. To make matters worse, CPM sources agree that after more than three decades of rule, there is a general sense of anger, especially among the young generation.

In Kerala, the party leadership thinks factionalism did them in. Moreover, dumping of an old ally like JD(S) over a seat did not help. As it is, the Church had made it clear that it would go all out against the Left Front government. However, the party is in no mood to admit that SNC-Lavlin case against Pinarayi Vijayan was a factor.

Meanwhile, Karat said in an article in party weekly ���People���s Democracy��� that while there was a pro-Congress trend in some parts of the country, there was no big shift overall in favour of the Congress. In terms of vote share, the Congress got just about 2% more than in 2004, he said.

Senior leader Sitaram Yechury���s editorial in the same issue said the party had faced such anti-communist gang-up in the past too and had bounced back. It would be back in the reckoning, he added. He also mocked at government formation and said the absence of Left meant there was no CMP.

As for the Left���s loss, Karat said, ���Both national and state level factors have to be analysed. The electoral-tactical line formulated by the party at the national level and the national political situation which influenced the Lok Sabha polls must be studied. Along with that, specific state factors in both West Bengal and Kerala must also be taken into account.���

Karat is hopeful the party will strenuously work to regain the support of those sections of people who were alienated from the party and the Left-led fronts.

���Such a self-critical exercise will also pave the basis for the party to take up organisational tasks set out in the party congress to strengthen the party and to expand its mass influence ,��� he said.